Dan Harper pledges to ‘give it everything' to get GTD Pro title bid back on track
Part of the Paul Miller Racing Team, the Hillsborough driver has impressed at the controls of BMW Motorsport's M4 GT3 Evo in the opening salvos of the stateside competition.
He clinched a first-ever podium result at March's 12 Hours of Sebring with Max Hesse and Jesse Krohn along with a full quota of IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points.
That went some way to make up for the disappointment the trio had to endure at January's curtain-raising Rolex 24 at Daytona where damage sustained during a multi-car incident that was not of their own making meant their push for a podium result ended in the pits.
'I am really looking forward to getting back to IMSA racing this weekend,' said Harper, who arrives at the venue fresh from winning April's Silverstone 500 with Darren Leung and Paradine Competition.
'We had a couple of days testing at the track recently, and I have to say it is a pretty cool place. Historically, it has not been the strongest one for the BMW, but we have worked hard throughout the test, and by the end of it, we feel like we got the car in a good window.
'We know we need to regain the points we lost at the first race at Daytona, so we will carry the momentum from Sebring and give it absolutely everything over the weekend. It is a shorter race this time and sure to be full of action, so we'll get stuck in for a good result.'
At only two hours, 40 minutes long, Krohn is sitting this round out, leaving Harper and Hesse to contest Sunday's meeting which gets under way at 8pm BST.
On top of an impressive Silverstone 500 display, Harper has been in red-hot form so far in 2025, triumphing at the Dubai 24 Hours and coming runner-up at the opening round of the GT World Challenge series at Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France in April.
Fellow Ulsterman Charlie Eastwood won't be making the trip to Laguna Seca with DXDT Racing, however, due to it clashing with the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
He is being reunited with TF Sport for the third World Endurance Championship fixture, which takes place on Saturday afternoon from 1pm BST and once again will host a capacity grid.
Meanwhile, Jon Armstrong continues his FIA European Rally Championship campaign in Hungary, with the Kesh native expecting the durability of his Ford Fiesta Rally2 to be thoroughly examined.
The M-Sport Ford driver has compared the stages of the gravel fixture to those 3,500 miles away in Kenya.
'It is going to be massively tough,' admitted Armstrong, who is the No.9 seed with co-driving team-mate Shane Byrne. 'The only real way to describe it is like a mini-Safari.
'Okay, you don't have the soft sand called fesh-fesh, but there is a lot of undulation in terms of jumps into crests and dips and you have bedrock in sections which hurts tyres.'
Among the ERC1 (Rally2) line-up are six winners of European Rally Championship events, including three that have conquered Rally Hungary in the past – Mads Ostberg (Citroen C3 Rally2) and Skoda Fabis RS Rally2 exponents Simone Tempestini and Frigyes Turan.
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The reprimand in the closing stages of the series' Fourth Round – the Detroit Grand Prix – meant Harper and his Paul Miller Racing team-mate Max Hesse crossed the line seventh. It was meted out by stewards after Hesse was deemed to have made contact with one of the Fords as he attempted to find a way past, with the penalty costing them valuable time. Despite struggling to get their BMW M4 GT3 in the right operating window on the low-grip, street-based circuit, they still managed to bag a second-row start for the 100-minute race. That laid the foundations for a potential high points haul and even a silverware challenge – and Harper started in positive fashion as he moved ahead of the sister Paul Miller Racing car when the lights went out. He maintained the position throughout his stint before he handed the reins to Hesse, who kept up his push for a spot in the winners' enclosure. However, the coming-together with the Ford saw both drivers' good work come to nought and leave them provisionally sixth in the standings on 1128 points after four rounds – 170 in arrears of AO Racing Porche duo Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich who lead the table. 'It was a disappointing race to end a tricky few days in Detroit,' reflected the Hillsborough man. 'We struggled through free practice on Friday as we tried to get the car in the right window on the low-grip circuit and could not quite match the pace of our GTD Pro rivals. 'Qualifying in fourth was better than we expected, we were happy with that, and the race started well, getting into the top three, but unfortunately, it slowly unravelled from there. 'Quicker cars were able to jump ahead on pit stop strategy, and then a small mistake from Max led to contact and a penalty. We salvaged some points with seventh, though, and we will push for more next time out,' added Harper, who is next in action across the Atlantic later in June at the 3.4-mile Watkins Glen International circuit in the state of New York. In their own backyard, Ford was handed a popular GTD Pro triumph thanks to the No.46 crew of Seb Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller. They steered their Multimatic Motorsports-run Mustang GT3 to a 1.623-second win from the No.3 Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R co-driven by Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims. Pfaff Motorsports' Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 was the last of the podium finishers.
